“-so you have to think about it, Macki, think about what you want to do with your life. Think about who you want to be. This isn’t you. It can’t be. I refuse to believe this is some ‘new you.’ I know you’re in there… somewhere in that mass of flesh we call a mortal body. I only hope to reach you before you lose sight of yourself completely. Look… I know we’ve all changed, but I know you. You’re no...

DING! The metal door alerts me of new customers walking in. I look up from behind my seat at the cash register, apprehensive of anyone who enters the store past 10pm, especially on a weeknight. Three teen girls saunter down the chips aisle. One complains about not grabbing dinner before the show, while the others rush her saying they're going to be late. Fine, she says, and grabs a bag of chips be...

“Who are you?” The first three words I had heard him speak in a year. I clenched my fists trying to hold back the flood of tears threatening to spill down my cheeks the doctors mentioned he would forget his life before but I had hoped and prayed it wouldn’t come true. Telling myself he could never forget me but I was wrong. He stares at me his eyes looking as though they are looking through me not...

“Who are you?”—those were the hardest three words to hear in my life.

I stood there, frozen in the cereal aisle, clutching a box of Frosted Flakes like a life preserver. Across from me, Carol from accounting stared with that polite yet vaguely confused look people get when they’re trying to place someone they should definitely know.

“It’s me,” I said, my voice cracking slightly. “Mike… from the ...

“Oh, Grandma. You used to bake me cookies and give me hugs that nearly made me unable to breathe. You would send me pictures of birds from your birdhouses and birdfeeders. You let me choose what we were having for dinner. You weren’t mad if I tried something and didn’t like it, even if that meant you had wasted your money.

All these memories, these detailed descriptions of love, they flashed thro...

I sat there completely blank, my mind nothing but a void filled with possibilities, who am I?

I sit for hours pondering this question, and for someone to just outright ask me! Blasphemy! No one but a complete stranger non the less.

I have no idea who I am.

I am lost, broken, searching for something to keep me going, a little hint of what I might find solice in.

I am no one, no one but a monster...

I followed Erika through the door. The apartment was small, but it didn’t seem cluttered. There were plants everywhere, which made me smile. Erika adored plants.

My eyes landed on a picture of her and Finley, our five year old son. They both looked happy, smiling in the photo. My smile grew but got a sad tint.

Erika gave me a nervous smile. “What do you think?”

I enveloped her in a hug. “I love...

I am the assassin of a night

I am a presence that lives around you

I’m alive at night and dormant by day

I’m sleeping, dragon

Master and mistress of the darkness that looks in the soul

I live in the valley of death

Every man haunts dreams

I am the knightmare

I am vengeance...

It was raining the night I realized I had lost her. Not in the literal sense, not at first. She was right there, across the kitchen table, tapping a spoon absentmindedly against her coffee mug. But the weight between us, the gulf that had opened up in the months prior, was deeper than any distance I’d known.

“Lena,” I began, the tremor in my voice betraying me. “Do you ever think about us? About h...

"Who are you?" -those were the hardest words to hear in my life. But I knew I would hear them eventually. I wonder if this is how she felt when she was in my position. I wonder if this is how my child will feel when it happens to them. There's no way to tell. Just the hope to pass down empathy in order to get through these hard times.

"Jenn." I say back. That's all she needs to know. If I tell he...